Iñaki de Juana Chaos

by Diarmuid Tue Dec 02, 2008 01:09

Dear "Basque Left Wing Nationalist" -- are you really any of those things? Well maybe you're Basque and not one of those Spanish nationalists who sometimes write into Indymedia or post analyses on Wikepedia (like the link you gave us) to run down the Basque struggle. And maybe you're a Basque Nationalist -- so you can refer us to the articles or other letters you wrote to Indymedia to promote the cause of Basque Nationalism? But you're not Left Wing, not by my understanding.

If you were, why would you join with the right-wing Spanish press such as El Mundo, the imperialist British press and the Irish capitalist press in putting the boot in on Inaki de Juana?
To answer some of your points, just in case they managed to confuse anyone, people can and do change their political orientation. When they do so to a good side, that's a good change. The Irish struggle has seen many people change their stands, even to outright betrayal and turning witness against their former comrades (sometimes even shooting them). Whether De Juana was a policeman for awhile before he joined ETA is neither here nor there. Whether when he was a child he played with children of the force that later became his enemies is also irrelevant.
Even less relevant is whether his father was a Falangist or not (yes, we had plenty of Blueshirts here too) and whether he was against the Basque language -- what counts is De Juana's actions as an adult and his beliefs when he took them, as well as his beliefs and situation now.
So he changed his name to a Basque version -- so what! Plenty did that kind of thing here here too. On the other hand, I know plenty of Basque people who had to give their children Spanish names by Spanish law and by the Church (including adding "Maria" to the name, whether male or female, whether they wanted to or not). That's why it's nearly impossible to find anyone born during Franco's time who has a Basque name on their certificate and also hard now to find a Basque who was born after Franco died who DOESN'T have a Basque name from birth.

Maybe de Juana hasn't learned any Euskara (Basque) -- I don't know. Certainly the prison conditions of most Basque political prisoners (you've heard of those 755, haven't you?) in Spanish and French jails don't favour study. Most of our 'nationalist' politicians can't speak Irish either. Personally I think all Irish people should learn our language but I am aware that even James Connolly didn't speak it, although he was happy to hear it being spoken around him.

ETA (Homeland and Freedom) started out as a political group which was targeted by Franco's forces of repression and especially the Guardia Civil (many of whom were also in the Falange). This included widescale torture. ETA then went military and considered themselves guerilla soldiers (as have many before, in many countries, and as many will in future). In the course of this war, it is alleged that De Juana killed 25 people. I don't know whether he did or not, but I do know that most of those he was convicted of killing were Guardia Civil or military -- including some very high-ranking Spanish fascist officers.

De Juana was convicted in the railroad Spanish political judicial system and served 18 years, at which time he was due for release. Then El Mundo and Los Victimas del Terrorismo (a Spanish group even more right-wing than the similar one in the 6 Counties) started a big furore and the State kept de Juana in prison -- illegally.

De Juana wrote one article against his continued detention and the suicides of some prisoners due to the atrocious conditions in which Basque political prisoners are kept and another about the situation in general of the Basque country (I have read the text of both in Spanish, the language he wrote them in). The Spanish railroad political judicial system then gave him an extra 12 years for those two articles and De Juana went on hunger-strike, during which he was forcibly fed intravenously, again against Spain's own laws and their medical ethics. The case attracted international attention (including a picture of him strapped to a bed in the London Times and a vigil at the Spanish Embassy in Dublin) and the Spanish courts magnanimously reduced the sentence on appeal to three.

That's a fair resumé of the case, I think. I wouldn't say your contribution even came close to 'impartial' bourgeois standards, never mind being left-wing.

Having completed this additional sentence De Juana was finally freed and decided to go to Ireland. Maybe he wanted to come here or he just wanted to get away from the Spanish state and be somewhere safe. Then El Mundo, the Spanish Embassy and some of the Irish capitalist media all got on another hate-de Juana bandwagon -- which you're running behind.

by synchronicity Tue Dec 02, 2008 19:56

"Txeroki" the 30 year old who set up an "eta within eta" and bombed Madrid's airport ending the ceasefire has been high on the list of wanted terrorists for many years. Coincidently the same day that Belfast crown court decided it couldn't send Iñaki back to Spain, Txeroki was arrested in France.

that would be interesting to know if you were like into that stuff.

¿no? anyway as predicted Iñaki will be getting on with it quietly & peacefully in Ireland away from all the fuss : which must delight some. Meanwhile ETA moves closer to becoming a bad nasty book of historical mistakes which frustrate rather than advance agenda of freedom. It being such a hard lesson to learn and all, it might be worth reminding gullible youth: If you want to promote national freedom best not to put bombs in airports killing Ecuadorians or 9mm bullets through peoples' heads.What could you do instead? I dunno.......... start a web site. do a t-shirt. get the yanks or brits on your side.

by stammer Wed Dec 03, 2008 16:16

This is their first attack since the Iñaki extradition buzz and the arrest of their chief http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikel_Garikoitz_Aspiazu_Rubina on the 16 of last month. The two 9mm rounds fired into the nape of the neck of Ignacio (spanish for iñaki) Uría Mendizábal at 1 o'clock today is their revenge & revindication of armed struggle as they way for the Basque people to unite and be free whether or not they have Basque surnames and Spanish first names or the other way round . Iñaki of course served his time for the umpteen bullets in napes he put & just wants to get on with it and peacefully live to see that wonderful aforementioned day of hope for all Basques of all shape and sizes.

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/espana/ETA/asesina/tiros...9/Tes

Though the self-styled leftwing republican independent freedom fighters haven't been inactive the last month. They began Novemeer by carbombing the carpark of a university campus in Navarra without warning. After all it was an Opus Dei privately run university and everyone agrees that if Franco is to be toppled you'll have to stop the choo choo train being built and Opus Dei schooling their own.

but Franco is dead & mouldering in the grave

I suppose once Euskal Herria is independent, it will want a high speed rail link to be built to its neighbours.., You could ask a local expert how that works out or even wonder why that's the because you can't get to Belfast in a hurry without a bypass round Tara.

by anton - - Fri Dec 12, 2008 17:44

In 1943 IÑAKI wasn't born yet. The article is so stupid that I would like to know the full name of the author to include him in an anthology of facist trash

by adecco manpower randstad Fri Dec 12, 2008 22:34

Iñaki himself started out as a copper.

best of luck with your compilation.

by personal capacity Sat Dec 13, 2008 21:29

It has emerged that the Zapatero government are operating a policy of selective relocation of basque political prisoners. Those who have abandoned or been expelled from ETA are being moved to prisons in the Basque country whilst those who still hold the hard line of no hope are being moved to the furthest depths of Andalucia in the south of the peninsula. This policy was explained in the last week's "El Pais" newspaper as readers also digested the arrest of ETA's newest commander less than 3 weeks since he took over.

This means that whoever was ultimately responsible (the last chief or the latest one) for the order to shoot the 71 year old builder through the nape of the neck for having the temerity of building a high speed train link is now in custody.

According to Spanish and French media the man wet himself when arrested when he failed to draw the 9mm he was carrying and instead found a French gun to his head. But the names of these people means little to an Irish readership who instead would only be expected to express curious interest in news with poster bill names of old familiarity. Such as Iñaki himself who is almost a household name or that bloke Otegi who has gone really really quiet since he got of jail apart from one personal capacity statement on prisoner issues and another personal capacity interview given to Gara the newspaper for that sort of thing on the need for a peace process. You've heard it all before no doubt. As would the potential voters in the next round of local elections should the rumours be true that he and others from the basque seperatist trade unions be prepared to present electoral lists with prior declared disassociation to ETA. You'd probably think that's silly coz you're only relevant as a fringe nationalist or loyalist party if you have an army and of course if that army is capable of financing itself and remaining out of household name familiarity and off the beaten track of the three software things the CIA lent both the French and Spanish state which alas your copy of Norton antivirus doesn't detect.

There are only 53 members of ETA left in circulation and they really are getting younger all the time.
Which is a terrible shame.

& You can be sure they have spyware.

don't we all..,

by Diarmuid Wed Feb 04, 2009 19:33

Hey, Stammer, Adeco Manpower and Personal Capacity:

Half-information can be very misleading and one wonders why you give it. I don't agree with the shooting of the builder but you should have mentioned that the AHT (High-Speed Train) that he was building is opposed by all environmentally-conscious people in the Basque Country and is set to cause enormous damage. A couple of weeks ago a demonstration against it attended by thousands (many more were blocked by police roadblocks) was attacked by police firing dozens of rounds of plastic bullets and injuring many. Then they arrested some and sent them for trial for supporting terrorism (the usual charge for any kind of Basque opposition to the Spanish state) but unusually the Spanish court decided that environmental demonstrating is not terrorism.

The Spanish state is trying divide-and-rule tactics on the political prisoners (of which there are 765 between French and Spanish prisons) but instead of gloating about that you should be protesting about their conditions if you had an ounce of interest in human rights. The EU and the UN both agree that families of prisoners should not be penalised and that prisoners should be located near their families (which Andalucia certainly is not, as you gleefully note). Human rights organisations and the UN and EU also agree that prisoners should serve their time in reasonable conditions with access to good medical treatment -- perhaps you'd like to gloat about the seriously and terminally-ill political prisoners who are forced to remain in prison in bad conditions? Despite how I feel about fascist police I wouldn't treat them like that if I had any influence in a different kind of regime. I note you didn't mention the 75,300 people who demonstrated in support of the prisoners on January 3rd this year in Bilbao -- but that didn't suit your slanted, sneering Spanish-State sycophancy, did it?

Perhaps now you could also start laughing about the Basques being tortured in Spanish police stations? But don't forget to omit that 50 Spanish anti-torture organisations, as well as Amnesty International, UN Commission Against Torture and UN Committee for the Prevention of Torture have all condemned the Spanish State on this score, not one further back than this year or the end of last year.